The Revolution in Ancient Pre-History: Pre-Ice Age Civilization

The list author says: "We are experiencing a revolution in our interpretation of ancient pre-history, firstly from when corrections to Carbon-14 datings pushed megalithic culture back to far older dates, and currently as more and more evidence emerges of rather advanced cultures and civilizations that were destroyed by sea level rise of 12500 or 9500 BCE after the last ice age and the 11000 - 9500 BCE Younger Dryas cold period. I do not subscribe AS YET to any theories including extra-terrestrials. I want to know what can be explained with evidence about humans. Also excluded are theories including "Atlantis". I think there were many many such drowned "continents" and we are just starting to look for them.

Archaeology has still barely exposed the tip of the iceberg. More keeps coming. In the last ten years or so, the neolithic has been moved back 5000 years with the discoveries in Turkey. What's next?

Also I avoid books that are re-hashes or collections of other books. All of the books below make original suggestions for major changes in history, on the basis of ample documentation.

Re: Oppenheimer on Southeast Asia below: His well-constructed arguments for Southeast Asia being the genesis of the neolithic now has to be adjusted, with the discoveries of earlier neolithic settlements in Turkey, which happened after his book was published. But he could still be correct about the spread of other aspects of the culture that arrived in India with the Dravidians and the middle east with the Sumerians. It's too early to know."

"Humans in Southeast Asia, 900,000 years ago, & building boats? Discovered only in 2004. The "all out of Africa" theory is being reconsidered. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-out-of-africa-theory-out&sc=WR_20070814"

"Southeast Asia has more flood stories than anywhere else. Oppenheimer proposes that the very shallow plate at the center of what is now the islands of Indonesia and Melanesia may have flooded during the last ice age, drowning evidence of cultures, and causing the dispersion of peoples throughout the region. Plus evidence of the Neolithic here, earlier or as early as elsewhere."

"More about Eden in the East: Oppenheimer uncovers many stories that could be the basis for later middle east and biblical myths, such as the basis of the myth of the fighting brothers (later: Cain and Abel) which grew out of the culture clash of Austronesians escaping their flooded homelands on the existing Melanesians."

"Carl Sauer predicted that Southeast Asia would turn out to be the origin of the Neolithic revolution, back in 1952, from his researches into plant dispersal, because it is the perfect environment of bodies of water close to pieces of land, perfect for harvesting of fish and seafood, learning to grow rice, and harvesting tropical fruits. See page 24."

"Extremely knowledgeable authors trace elements of the story that appeared in Shakespeare's Hamlet back through Finnish, Persian, and Indian mythology to the essential story of wonder at its base: that of the precession of the equinoxes. Amazing scholarship. The work has gotten few critiques because almost no one else is so broadly knowledgeable."

"This book was the root of all recent searching for pre-Ice Age civilization, introducing a startling interpretation of an ancient map showing pre-Ice Age Antarctica, and details of the coast of South America, once the mapping-mode was deciphered. 1966."

"Amazing. If they are correct, the scratchings on megalithic stones, along with petroglyphs finally reveal their secrets: maps to land after land discovered to the west. Someone needs to extend this to the Pacific, hopefully including the places identified by Cohane in The Key."

"Oops! Someone has! This author has a new book out called URU-The Lost Civilisation of Australia, not yet available on Amazon, but check the www. Perhaps this is the start of the missing link??? Dolmens, megaliths, sun-god, voyages, writing, . . . destroyed in the floods."

"1965. The book that came before almost all the rest except Sauer. Astronomical knowledge embedded in megalithic monuments, which are found on nearly every continent. Full list, still growing, at http://www.megalithic.co.uk"

"Michael Dames careful investigation of Avebury in England, which is more elaborate even then Stonehenge, with new conjectures about tie-ins to astronomy and what type of activities may have gone on, and also to the festivals and mythology of medieval England that may have grown out of those older practices."

"Kicked off a lot of investigation, chiefly on the report that the Dogon can see Sirius. What's just as eye-opening is that many "primitive" cultures have just as evolved, elaborate, & delicate a world view & stories of creation as the West. Dogon symbolism (in Africa) has commonalities with that of Mayans, Mongolia, and New Guinea. 1948."

"The connection I'm suggesting hasn't been established yet, but here is amazing detective work revealing what Mayan art and architecture was about: shamanic travel to other worlds and extremely advanced knowledge of astronomy, especially the precession of the equinoxes, including knowledge of the line-up which is coming in 2012."

"The same evidence from another center of the ancient world: Egypt. Knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes and the changes coming up. I wonder whether we would see the same knowledge if the civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had not been destroyed by the flooding at the last ice age's end."

"This book is mostly academic critiques of other authors, so boring reading, but there is an amazing revelation that the Egyptian pharaohs practiced techniques that may have put them into a shamanic trance, not too dissimilar to Mayan practices described by Freidel."

"Britain's genetic history revealed by new knowledge of DNA: Most of the DNA arrived at, and has been there from, the end of the last ice age (pre-Dryas). The full implications of this are yet to enter many fields of scholarship. "Celtic" culture arrived much earlier than thought. See Eden in the East. Look at the art of New Guinea, Indonesia, Shang China, and the Scythians."

""Vennemann argues for an ancient post-glacial European language sub-stratum on the basis of river-names. He calls this language family Vasconic (i.e. linguistically like the Basque and as with their re-expansion, originating in the Basque refuge and spreading north, west and east)." Oppenheimer"

"To follow this just a bit into History: The Mithraic Mysteries were also based on the Precession of the Equinoxes. And the symbolism of the Mithraic Mysteries was then buried in Christian mythology, no longer understood in its fullest dimensions."

"and this. I can't believe that the Dionysian Mysteries - which, btw, were performed for ONE THOUSAND years - did not have elements of astronomy and shamanism. We shall see. (This book was disappointing. Still looking for more on this.)"

"Another thoughtful line of inquiry, connecting the grail, alchemy, ancient values of special rocks and stones, and more. I haven't decided how this fits in with the rest, but it raises interesting possibilities, that also should be considered."

"What all of this means for the near future. At the very least, earth is turning towards galactic center, although it appears the turn started ca 1433, as Aquarius became heliacal rising constellation at the Vernal Equinox. But there may be more. Be aware, or as Aldous Huxley's characters in his book "Island" were continually reminded, "Attention!""

"Japan's Jomon culture has recently (1999) been moved back from being dated at 3000 BC, to pre-ice age 14,500, by the discovery of one site in Aomori prefecture in northern Japan. This book is from 2006, but I don't know if that's covered. Jomon pottery was first found in Valdivia in South America; since then Jomon shards were also found in Vanuatu."